Otavamedia Seeks Greater Control on Media Buying with New PubMatic Deal

By Sudipto Ghosh On Mar 28, 2018

Otavamedia Eyes Greater Control on Media Buying with New PubMatic Deal

The Subscription Deal Provides Otavamedia with Increased Transparency and Control

PubMatic, the publisher-focused SSP for an open digital media future, has announced that Otavamedia, one of Finland’s largest media companies, has signed a contract to license PubMatic’s platform on a subscription basis. By licensing the technology rather than paying a percentage of revenue, Otavamedia is able to gain greater control over how it operates and could streamline its approach to doing business. Currently, Otavamedia is a leading player among Finnish magazine publishers and a third biggest commercial online media network in Finland.

The new fee model follows PubMatic’s recent fraud-free programme and no buy-side fee announcements.

At the time of this announcement, Antti Ellonen, Digital Business Development & Programmatic Manager at Otavamedia, said, “Adopting a monthly fee structure, similar to a SaaS deal simplifies our planning. Removing the traditional revenue share model means removing uncertainty. This results in a predictable cost base that brings us greater control and accountability, providing benefits to our advertisers as well as the business.”

PubMatic began offering its products on a subscription basis in order to increase transparency of the technology procurement process, lower overall costs for publishers, and promote healthy relationships across the supply chain. The subscription cost structure provides publishers with predictability, liquidity and ultimately freedom to reinvest savings in innovation.

As advertisers demand more transparent relations, these programmes will encourage brands and agencies to bid more actively, driving greater spend to benefit both advertisers and publishers.

Bill Swanson, Chief Revenue Officer, EMEA at PubMatic, said, “Introducing a subscription model is part of our commitment to developing a simplified and transparent programmatic marketplace. Otavamedia realizes the business benefits this model will bring, and we look forward to continuing to support them going forward.”

New Deal with PubMatic Allows Otavamedia to Expand Portfolio Without Incremental Costing

Otavamedia had been using several PubMatic products since 2015, including OpenWrap, the industry’s first hybrid client- and server-side wrapper. This new deal allows the company to expand this portfolio without worrying about incremental cost implications to the business.

Antti said, “We have been working with PubMatic now for over two years. They have a unique, transparent and easy to use the product and, compared to other vendors in the market, their customer service is second to none.” Antti added, “With PubMatic, we do not have a black box technology but a true partner that gives us access to the global reach we need. They are a very strong player in a tough market.”

Currently, PubMatic provides an omnichannel revenue automation technology for publishers and enterprise-grade programmatic tools for media buyers, PubMatic’s publisher-first approach enables advertisers to access premium inventory at scale. Processing over ten trillion advertiser bids per month, PubMatic has created a global infrastructure to drive publisher monetization and control over their ad inventory.